Bulgaria to prioritise European Communications Code in Council presidency; full EU spectrum reform in doubt

Bulgaria will focus its attention on speeding up negotiations on the European Communications Code when it takes over the 6 month rotating presidency of the Council of Ministers in January, notes EurActiv. “When the country takes the lead on member state legislative negotiations next month, it will be in charge of pushing talks ahead on a number of proposals that the European Commission has made since 2015 as part of its digital single market initiative. Bulgaria is particularly eager to move quickly on the telecoms legislation – known as the electronic communications code – which the Commission proposed last year.” “This is our first and foremost priority,” a spokeswoman from the Bulgarian presidency said. Its other focus areas include moving negotiations ahead on the EU copyright bill, the e-privacy regulation and a draft cybersecurity law. Meanwhile telecoms ministers from EU countries have agreed on a plan to set up 5G internet networks by 2025, 5 years after the European Commission’s original proposal, but have “snubbed a proposal to reform rules for selling off radio spectrum”. Ministers signed off on a list of goals to make 5G networks available around the EU at a meeting in Brussels on 4 December, “but they did not budge on a Commission plan to make easier and less lengthy processes for national authorities to auction off radio spectrum to telecoms companies. Spectrum auctions rake in fees for member states that can stretch up to several billions of euros, and ministers are reluctant to agree on common EU rules that could change how long a spectrum licence lasts and conditions for selling it to firms.” Read more and here